Soft landing for Jack Jones is a hard sell for the DA — and the Patriots
The scathing response to his decision to drop gun charges against New England Patriots cornerback Jack Jones did not surprise Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden: “Look, we were fully aware of the likely reaction to this decision,” he told me during a short telephone conversation. “But we make decisions based on facts and precedent, not on fear of controversial reactions. We were never going to let Jones’s status as a Patriot influence the course of this case one way or another. We made the proper decision based on the law, our burden of proof, and how this office has historically handled similar cases.”
To underscore that point, Jim Borghesani, a spokesperson for Hayden, provided the bare bones facts of two other cases in which gun charges were dropped. One involved a man who was arrested at Logan International Airport in September 2022 for carrying a firearm without a license, with charges dropped based on the defendant’s cooperation with law enforcement, his lack of previous record, and the “likelihood of good faith mistake based on South Carolina firearm laws.” The other case is from February
2023, involving a truck driver from Ohio who was flying home and had a gun in his bag. He was properly licensed in Ohio but, like Jones, was charged with airport security violations and illegal possession. Like Jones, he got a one year, pretrial probation on the security violation charge, Borghesani said.
That shows there are at least two defendants in somewhat similar situations who received similar treatment. But the soft landing for Jones is still a hard sell, coming from a DA who has described gun violence as “community terror” and pushed for stricter gun-buying regulations to stop illegal guns coming from other states. It also comes at a time when Boston is grappling with “hot people and hot places,” as an aide to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu described a recent burst of street violence. According to statistics provided by Boston police, as of Sept. 8, there had been 115 people shot in 2023, down from 130 in the same stretch of 2022 — but the victims included 21 dead, up from 19 killed last year during that time period.
Of course, Jones isn’t charged with shooting anyone and doesn’t own the recent spate of gunrelated crime in Boston. But what wisdom will he share during the 48 hours of community service he is committed to perform under his plea agreement? Guns are dangerous; stay away from them? Or, if you are caught with them, get a good lawyer?
Jones, 25, was arrested in June at Logan after two firearms were found in his carry-on luggage. He was charged with two counts each of possession of a concealed weapon in a secure area of an airport; possession of ammunition without a firearm identification card; unlawful possession of a firearm; carrying a loaded firearm; and possession of a large-capacity feeding device. Unlike a truck driver, he was not passing through Massachusetts. He hangs out here, at least during football season.
If Hayden is taking heat for his decision not to prosecute Jones — what about the Patriots and their decision, so far, to stick with a player with a history of problems on and off the field?
In dropping the charges, prosecutors said “it cannot be proven behind a reasonable doubt that Mr. Jones had knowledge that he possessed firearms in his bag at the time of the incident.” Would prosecutors be just as open to others who say they don’t know how that gun got into their backpack? Prosecutors also noted that the guns were legally purchased in Arizona and Jones “has taken steps to become a lawful gun owner” in Massachusetts. However, the firearms safety certificate Jones obtained from Massachusetts is dated July 5 — after his arrest. And whether that really happened within 60 days of his football season return to Massachusetts, as required by law, is unclear.
But if Hayden is taking heat for his decision not to prosecute Jones — what about the Patriots and their decision, so far, to stick with a player with a history of problems on and off the field?
Jones’s recent gun problem touches on a cause that is supposedly important to New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Last November, Kraft loaned the team plane to the University of Virginia football program so players could travel together to funerals for three teammates who were killed in an on-campus shooting. He did the same thing in 2018 when he loaned the team plane to fly the families of the 17 victims of the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., along with some of the students who were also injured, to a rally in Washington, D.C., to speak out against gun violence. So Kraft cares about guns — but not about a Patriots player who has two of them in his carry-on luggage?
Jones did not play in Sunday’s game because of a hamstring injury. He could still face discipline from the NFL. A spokesperson for the league told the Boston Herald that the matter remains “under review.” So maybe the Patriots are waiting to see what happens there. But why can’t this organization reach its own judgment about Jones? Why does it need cover from the NFL or the DA?
Why should Hayden get the jeers while Kraft gets the cheers?